Monday, June 22, 2015

EXTRA: Cook County may resume its spot back on top (of the sales tax heap)

A
part of me is wondering right about now who’s laughing the loudest – Todd Stroger
or William Beavers.

PRECKWINKLE: Now, she wants the tax hike

Both
of them surely are saying “told you so” at the thought that Cook County Board
President Toni Preckwinkle let it be known Monday that she’s now pushing for an
increase in the county’s share of the sales tax.

CURRENTLY,
THE COUNTY charges 0.75 percent of the purchase price as a sales tax. Which
when combined with all the other government entities in Cook County and
Illinois makes the total sales tax some 9.25 percent.

Preckwinkle
says she wants to add another 1 percent to the county’s share, which would
bring the total sales tax to 10.25 percent – which would be one of the highest
rates anywhere in the nation.

It’s
ironic that the county board president is now pushing this issue, because she
was the one who during her last term in office went out of her way to repeal a
1 percent sales tax hike that former county board President Stroger imposed.

And
which was the primary reason why so many people ganged up on his campaign for
re-election in 2010 that he came in fourth in a four-candidate field during the
Democratic primary that year.

OF
COURSE, SOME people were really upset that Stroger was the son of John Stroger,
and they didn’t like the way the elder Stroger orchestrated his succession for
his son to the top county board post when his health became so inclement that
he had to step down.

Talk
of the tax hike was really just their cover.

BEAVERS: How snarky would he be?

Preckwinkle
made a priority of gradually knocking down the sales tax hike that Stroger
enacted because the tax revenue was needed by county government to fulfill its
financial obligations.

Now,
she wants that money back. The real question is, Will the bulk of the Cook County
Board be just as hard-headed in their opposition to the issue as they were back
in the days of Stroger?

OR
WILL THE fact that Preckwinkle has much more professional respect in her post
than Stroger ever had when he served result in them being willing to accept the
need for a revenue increase?

It
won’t be just Stroger who thinks “told you so.” Because I can remember so many
occasions in which the outspoken Bill Beavers denounced his critics for their
tax opposition – always seeing it as a personal slight against Stroger rather
than a serious critique about government revenues.

STROGER: Will his tax hike become real?

So
many that I honestly lost count, and eventually quit noting them back in the
days when I wrote about Cook County government. It got to the point where
Stroger NOT criticizing his colleagues was more rare and newsworthy than when
he did.

Why
would Preckwinkle be willing to move now to repeal something that she
previously fought against? Perhaps it is because that with all the different
units of government facing financial problems, Preckwinkle wants to stake her
claim to an increased share of the sales tax before anybody else can.

OR
MAYBE SHE’S just more willing to accept such an increase if she winds up
getting the credit for fixing the county’s financial problems.

Although
I’m sure the people who are eager to back Gov. Bruce Rauner in his efforts to
alter the state’s financial situation will be amongst the most outspoken
critics of Preckwinkle for what she is talking about doing now.

I’m
also sure it will further bolster the arguments of those people who live near
the county’s borders – because they’re going to argue it further makes it
cheaper to shop elsewhere. Will County, or perhaps across the state line in
Hammond?

Then
again, I think anybody who’s willing to go out of their way to waste gasoline
so they can save a few cents when they buy gas isn’t going to care about any
line of logic that tries to justify the need for additional sales tax revenue.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.